That's a good question. Maybe I can come up with a good answer!
First, let me say this: I apologize.
I apologize to softbllmom if something here has offended her. That was not my intent. One of my answers was, if not insulting in my mind, a bit forceful. (Of course, that was the response to the post you erased. If everybody could see the post that was deleted, the tone of what I said and why I said it might make a little more sense.)
But, even more so, I would like to apologize to the good members of this forum for subjecting them to this whole borderline mudslinging contest. I think that those of you that know me know that that really isn't my style. Sorry.
On to the question...
An umpire has a couple of things to sort out before making a call on this one. You say the batter "checked her swing". So the first thing to determine is if the "checked swing" was an effort to contact the ball or was successfully checked. The "swing or no swing" decision can effect the rest of the call.
It is possible for a pitch to either hit the batter right on the hands before it touches the bat, or to hit the bat near the hands then deflect into them, or to even hit both the bat and the hands at
almost the same exact time.
The umpire has to take in any evidence he can and use his best possible judgment to figure out which happened first. The evidence can be visual (based on what he saw), the sound that is made (a solid "thunk" from the bat or fleshy "squish" from the hands) or even how the batter reacts (real blood squirting versus an academy award-winning performance).
You have to discard the notion that the pitch hit both the hands and the bat at exactly the same time. There's no such thing as a "tie" on this one. You have to decide that one or the other was hit first.
Depending on what you judge, there are several possible outcomes.
- Batter successfully checked swing (ie: no swing) and ball hit hand first: Hit batter- award first base (unless hand was hit while in the strike zone, or the contact prevented the pitch from entering the strike zone- then it's a strike).
- Batter successfully checked swing, ball hit bat first, then hit hand: Foul ball.
- Batter offered at pitch (ie: swing) and pitch hit hand first. Strike.
- Batter offered at pitch, ball hit bat first, then hand: Foul ball.
So, there's a lot to consider, judge and decide on this play. Take a moment to soak it all in (you have a good three or four seconds to process all the evidence before anybody expects a ruling ?
) then make your call as best you can.
